What's For Dinner?

I asked one of my favourite newly GF people what I should blog about tonight. You see, I have this whole stack of blog posts in my head. One day I'm going to have to make the list go from brain to paper so that at 3 in the morning I don't wake up thinking "oh I have a good one" and then start to write it in my head. Because let's be honest, by the time I really wake up in the morning, I forget most of what I "wrote" and I'm kind of cranky from sleep deprivation.

But tonight I wanted to deviate from the list in my head and write what someone else wanted me to write about. She suggested "Gluten Free Crock-Potting" and so here we are.

Let's talk about the crock pot for a minute. This is one appliance that if you do not have one, you should probably open a new tab right now and go on a hunt. You don't need anything fancy my friends! You just need something that (ideally) has a high and a low setting, and that's it. There are more complex ones out there with timers and temperature settings and fancy dials and stuff, but really, slow cooking isn't complex. It's easy, convenient, and a miraculous addition to any family.

Let me tell you the story of how I acquired a slow cooker. It was the year 2002 and my husband and I had just gotten engaged. We got some engagement gifts and one of them was a small slow cooker. Immediately I cursed thinking this was another appliance I'd never use because you know, slow cookers were for old people. Could I have possibly have been more wrong?? The slow cooker came with a recipe book so I tried one. If I recall, I made chicken noodle soup. I tossed everything in the morning before I went to work and walked in after work to amazing smells. The soup wasn't amazing by any stretch, but it had me very intrigued. We went on to make chicken, ribs, and more soups in our little slow cooker. When we moved across the country, we got rid of it and bought a big one instead!

This all happened pre-celiac disease in our house, so we just went with whatever. Beef stew? No problem, we'll just coat it in flour. Chicken? No worries, just throw a can of cream of celery soup in there.

Now? Now it's not as easy. Many recipes are inherently gluten free but most of the cookbooks out there still have "short cuts". I am not a big proponent of short cuts for two reasons.

1. Most short cuts involve gluten.
and
2. Most short cuts involve really unhealthy food packed with preservatives, unreadable ingredients and garbage.

Both of them are equally as bad. I just don't really like, nor appreciate, processed foods.

So in my journey of slow cooking I've experimented with great successes, but also with a number of failures. We have a few go-to slow cooker recipes that we use a lot and I thought I'd provide you with some great links.

The Gluten Free Goddess has a whole page of Gluten Free Slow Cooker Recipes! Not only are her recipes generally amazing, but she's a pretty spectacular writer, too.

A year of slowcooking has been one of my favourite blogs for a while now. It has great recipes and to my knowledge, the author of the blog is the only one who has made a 100% gluten free crock pot cook book. So invaluable!!

I just went to Stephanie's store too (from A Year of Slowcooking) and have decided that I must have the t-shirt that says "Gluten Free is NOT the new Vegan". So, so true.

Well friends, I hope I've shown you that slowcooking can save you time, money, and cooking at the end of a long day. I love walking in to freshly made food that has been cooking all day. (Sorry in advance if you're vegetarian) Ham, Pulled Pork, Roasts, Chicken, Stews, Sauces, Soups.. they just all taste better in the slow cooker.

And as an added bonus, did you know you can bake in a slow cooker too? These are about the best GF cinamon buns I've had (and I made them vegan too) and they were slow cooked!

Until next time.. happy cooking!